Sunday, October 13, 2013

Xmas Knitting: And So it Begins

As I've spent the last week planning a rush of hand-knitted Xmas presents, my husband reminded me (with amusement) that I have this weird compulsion to make things for Christmas. There was that year I forced him to bake (and then deliver) 20 pies. I always make cookies and candies to give away. Just ask my friends for whom I've written poems (ok, not since university, but still). When I started to sew, I sewed gifts. And now, with knitting, well I've hit my stride with the perfect Xmas craft.

Little helpful tip: If you think you might get a Christmas gift from me, don't look at my Ravelry page for a while.

In some ways, I'm as insane about things as ever - 14 gifts between now and Dec. 20, though 3 are already complete. Mind you, this is the year I found hats. And hats, my friends, they're very fun and fast - and practical, and cute. Really, what was I waiting for?? Note: I'm making some hats and some other things. Not all gifts are hats.

The truth is that it's all about me. I have a pin-head, fine hair and a pixie cut: hats tend to look terrible because they're all massively huge on me. It's put a bad taste in my mouth. Happily, though, I finally realizedthat making hats to-fit is a piece of cake by comparison with fitting a sweater or a pair of pants or, let's say, a bra. I won't get too much into it but I'm using drape and yarn tension to my advantage - in addition to accurate measurements of head circumference and crown depth. I don't go from the pattern instructions. Patterns like to make huge hats. I figure out how big I want the thing to be, what drape I'm looking for, and then I do the math. The end result is a hat in the size I want which is to say the size I'm anticipating. It's just key to scale the pattern so that you can divide the number of stitches you use by the stitch repeat and get a whole number.

No, I haven't been knitting size-test gauge swatches and I know that's risky (esp. when I'm unfamiliar with how a yarn will block). The thing is, I measure often as I'm knitting in the round so I know my gauge constantly and I'm willing to do some fancy footwork on the fly. My objective is to knit a hat with about 3 inches of negative ease. That's more than any pattern (I've found) allows for, but I find that yarn can stretch ridiculously. Even if the hat blocks small, there's more than enough room when a person wears it. I'm infinitely more attuned to the likelihood that a hat will be too large than too small.

At any rate, I've been knitting hats for about a week and a half. Don't take my advice on anything!

Is this not the most adorable thing ever?! I used Madeline Tosh Vintage, a new-to-me yarn that I seriously love. The yarn didn't thrill me initially, but it's springy and soft and the colour is so berry-beautiful. It's got lovely hand-dyed colour-saturation variations. Remember when I hated shit like that?? :-)

The yarn is not cheap. You can do approximately as well with Quince, in terms of the springy nature of the yarn, at much less cost. But it sure is nice to pick up a skein in the store and just start knitting.

I used the smallest pattern size and then sized it down considerably more by cutting out one row repeat and using a smaller needle. Yeah, I realize this looks like a toddler hat, but my nine year-old niece is SO tiny that she still sits in a car seat and a modified high chair. She weighs like 50 pounds. Note: My sister, as a child, was little like this and now she's taller than me.

The proportions of the honeycomb will look better in my next version, to be made for my other niece (who has a slightly larger head). I'll be able to do another cable repeat and the ratio of cables to crown decreases will favour the cables.

I should also say that this design is very simple. The cables are a bit fussy but they happen for 2 out of 12 rows, so it's barely a blip. BTW, the K1P1 rib threw me a bit when I was tired. I somehow managed to flip the work inside out and knit backwards - basically short rowing half the hat circumference. Which means, when I realized this (2 half-rows later) I had to short row on the other side of the hat to restore row equilibrium. OK, I could have ripped back, but my solution seemed more efficient, no?

So, today's questions: Have you knit this cap and, if yes, do you love it? What do you think of Madeline Tosh yarn? Are you Xmas knitting and, if yes, to what extent? BTW, you can see some of my planned projects in my Ravelry queue if you're interested... Let's talk!

I'm interested in your assessment of the MadTosh Vintage, because I've heard so many rave reviews about it but when I felt it up in my LYS, it felt scratchy to me. Maybe I'll reconsider at some point, as the colors are fantastic.

This is my second year of Christmas knitting and, although I'm planning fewer gifts than you, I too have already started. On my list: three pairs of socks (one cabled, two for men, sigh), two hats, a cowl, and a shawl. I'm planning to balance this out with some sewn gifts, for an entirely hand-made holiday.

I am a fan of Tosh Sock and have some Tosh DK and Tosh Light in my stash. Her colours are so lovely.

That hat is very cute. I would totally have worn it as a kid.

One warning, though, when you knit hats with a lot of negative ease, they get shorter when stretched over heads. I have knit a few hats that ended up being about a half-inch short (not quite covering the ears) because of this. It's not necessarily a deal-breaker, but it's something to consider. (And something I need to be reminded to consider every time I knit a hat. One day I'll remember.)

Angela: That is very ambitious. I find socks are a time suck (even though people love them). And a shawl is lots of work (unless you're knitting in a chunky yarn). Really good feedback about the horizontal stretch eating into the vertical stretch with negative ease. You are smart to point that out. I will be careful!

Hats are a great idea for gifts -- everyone can use one, and they're quickly knit. I, meanwhile, am taking forever knitting almost-5-year-old Nola the rainbow pants she wants -- in Fingering yarn?!! How ridiculous is that?! At least it excuses many hours of Netflix . . . .

I know! But that Nola is a nutcase! Or maybe you are the nutcase for indulging these high-maintenance fashion tastes :-) I'm sure they're going to be VERY cut on her though. And next she'll have you working on the matching sweater. :-)

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